{"id":192,"date":"2009-10-21T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2009\/10\/adoption-one-more-time.html"},"modified":"2009-10-21T09:55:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T09:55:00","slug":"adoption-one-more-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/10\/adoption-one-more-time.html","title":{"rendered":"Adoption, One More Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t had a chance to read through the comments on last week\u2019s post on adoption, I commend them to you. If you are one of the people who contributed to that conversation, thank you. You\u2019ve helped me to clarify some of my own thinking on the issue, and you\u2019ve prompted further reflection. <\/p>\n

So where am I now? I should explain first that for the past few months, every time I have thought about having another child, I wondered if I should feel guilty. I haven\u2019t actually felt guilty, but I\u2019ve wondered if I should. I wondered if it was irresponsible to have biological children given the number of orphans in the world. I wondered if we were simply doing our part to contribute to overpopulation and global warming. And so I wondered if this desire to have children, biological children, was merely that: biological. I wondered whether it was a vestige of our evolutionary past, to be overcome by prayer, by the Spirit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n

There shouldn\u2019t be orphans in the world. It\u2019s a simple statement, and yet one I hadn\u2019t realized before we began this conversation. The truth of the matter is, parents shouldn\u2019t abandon their children. Parents shouldn\u2019t die. If and when they do, there should be family members who can incorporate the children into their family. <\/p>\n

Of course, the reality is that there are orphans. There are abandoned children. The need is there, although it shouldn\u2019t be. <\/p>\n

So recently, I have come to believe that this desire for biological children is a God-given one. \u201cBe fruitful and multiply,\u201d God commanded in Genesis. Or consider that, as one friend pointed out to me today, all the barren women in the Bible pray for and receive a biological child as an answer to their prayers. Biological children are a gift from the Lord. The desire for them is a good one, a God-given one.<\/p>\n

So when I feel torn between the desire for another biological child and the reality of orphans in the world, it is a holy tension. Children are a gift. Take care of the orphans. I\u2019m not sure how this will all work out in our lives. For now, we\u2019ll do our best to show Penny and William God\u2019s love and grace. For now, we\u2019ll support our new friends Eric and Holly Nelson (Special Hope Network<\/a>) as they start an organization to provide for orphans with special needs in Africa. <\/p>\n

Bearing children. Adopting. Either way, I will, I hope, be participating in God\u2019s work in this world. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t had a chance to read through the comments on last week\u2019s post on adoption, I commend them to you. If you are one of the people who contributed to that conversation, thank you. You\u2019ve helped me to clarify some of my own thinking on the issue, and you\u2019ve prompted further reflection. So…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nAdoption, One More Time - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/10\/adoption-one-more-time.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adoption, One More Time - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you haven\u2019t had a chance to read through the comments on last week\u2019s post on adoption, I commend them to you. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}